Friday, December 5, 2014

Party Like It's 2001! (Musical Tribute)

The following chart shows the 2-year moving average of the annual change in the ratio of motor vehicle loans divided by wage and salary accruals.


Click to enlarge.

Motor vehicle loan growth is exceeding wage growth by more than 4%. Dare I mention the parabola?

Welcome to 2001.



Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

6 comments:

Karlo said...

With the cheap gas, many of the vehicles are probably gas-guzzlers as well. I'm the proud non-owner of a vehicle. (I actually own virtually nothing.) I hope I never need to buy another one for the rest of my days on the planet.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Karlo,

I bought a new Camry in 1996. I have about 90k miles on it. Over the past decade, I'm only tacking on about 2k per year though.

I'm 50. Barring an accident, I doubt I buy another car in my lifetime. If ride-sharing expands into my suburban area, I would definitely consider getting rid of my car entirely.

The many reasons millennials are shunning cars

Karlo said...

Cars are a money drain and just one more thing to worry about. Of course, the U.S. isn't really set up for people who forgo buying a car.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Karlo,

Indeed. Cheap gasoline taught us to sprawl.

I lived in downtown Seattle for a few years. I didn't drive much there either, although I did have to commute to work.

One of my coworkers had a 2 hour commute each way, and it also required a ferry trip. I never understood why he would willingly wish to do that.

Karlo said...

I did that for a couple of years. I think I lost a couple of extra years in terms of my health. Thinking of it that way, it really is insane. I now usually walk home from work (a pleasant one-hour jaunt). Perhaps sanity comes with age.

Stagflationary Mark said...

Karlo,

I think I lost a couple of extra years in terms of my health.

My last job did that to me. Well, maybe not to me. I suppose I did it to myself. I should have quit the moment antacids became a daily routine. It's been 15 years but it still haunts me.

It wasn't the corporate fraud directly. It was the sense of impending doom and widespread lack of morale. It wears on a person. In some ways, this blog is my release. The housing bubble brought many of those memories back.